07/02/2020 - 12:44
- Clarín.com
- Economy
- Economy
" Opportunity kills pandemic ". This was summed up by one of the most important importers of cars in the country, when analyzing the figures of patents (retail sales) of vehicles zero kilometer in June: they were 36,991 units, 2.3% above the 36,161 in June last year, according to the Association of Automotive Dealers (ACARA) and Clarín had anticipated . So far this year, patents total 153,099 units .
It is the first time in 25 months , since May 2018, that sales exceed the same month of the previous year, although the dealers themselves are the first to admit that most of the sales were stimulated by the gap between the price of the official dollar and the price of that same currency in the parallel market : the difference, even taking the blue dollar buyer as a reference, exceeds 70%.
The head of ACARA, Ricardo Salomé, avoided referring to the so-called "auto dollar" in the ACARA statement, and emphasized the offers and bonuses for some models. "When the sale salons opened, people took turns and visited the dealerships with a decision to take advantage of the current discounts ."
Salomé also pointed out that there are problems "to replace" the units sold: although he did not directly indicate the reasons for this inconvenience, the fact is that seven out of every ten vehicles sold in the country are imported, so any inconvenience Real linked to the replacement of vehicles is linked to the authorization of the Ministry of Industry to enter them , or to the request of the automakers for the Central Bank to authorize them to buy foreign currency (at official price) to pay for those imports.
"If production and imports do not accompany, in three months we would be in an alarming state of decapitalization for not having been able to replace 13,000 vehicles from our stock," said Salomé. "It would be serious to stop the lawsuit for not having vehicles to market, not only for us, but also because every 100,000 cars that are not patented are 83,000 million pesos less in revenue that the State stops receiving," added the businessman.
For his part, the Secretary General of ACARA, Ruben Beato, maintained: "The future of our commercial activity is highly threatened by the projections already mentioned, putting at risk the 75,000 families who live in the concessionaire sector. Hopefully at the end of this phase, a stimulus plan can be given impetus, our sector must be one of the engines of recovery. "
